In a letter to the editor, Hoboken Republican Committee Secretary Joshua Einstein says that his Democratic counterparts are “disconnected from reality” over their stance on Hudson County government’s deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.Â
Dear Editor,
The Hoboken Democrat Committee, its leadership association, and fellow traveler, Hoboken Councilwoman Emily Jabbour, have once again proven themselves disconnected from reality.
Their recent inane demands regarding the county jail anti-crime agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are beyond belief.
The agreement, which has existed since 1996, and been renewed by numerous county office holders (all Democrats) and under Democrat and Republican presidential administrations, allows the incarceration of illegal aliens in Hudson County.
Bergen and Essex Counties (controlled by Democrats) also participate in the program, allowing ICE to hold illegal aliens arrested primarily in NYC near any family they have which might help them mount a defense and any hypothetical asylum application.
Not only would the initial demands of the Hoboken Democratic Committee have an adverse effect on the very illegal aliens they pretend to be defending since being sent to a jail further away could inhibit their ability to defend themselves, but they ignore that the
immigration enforcement priorities in our region have remained constant, since before and during the Trump administration, and are to prioritize the apprehension of illegal alien who have committed felonies.
Putting aside the issue of the municipal Democrat leadership’s de facto desire to keep more felons in the US, their other two hissy fit styled demands are also deserving of derision.
First is their demand for a “no-profit†contract with ICE.
A roll back from their initial call to terminate the relationship altogether, this worst type of two-faced political triangulation is designed to make them appear more moderate but
if implemented would have the county jail continue the services it provides ICE and raise the cost of living in Hudson County.
Whether through rent to a landlord or through direct payments, everyone pays property taxes and those taxes would undoubtedly rise if the county left millions of federal dollars on
the table but continued proving ICE the same services.
Second, the leadership of the Hoboken municipal Democrats demand they be able to have spot inspections of the county jail.
These people were elected, in a legally questionable coup, by the Democrat committee of Hoboken, of which the committee members were elected by a tiny minority of Hoboken’s registered Democrats.
The county sheriff, freeholders, the county executive, or even publicly elected officials of the city government of Hoboken they are not.
This would be akin to me, as the elected Republican State Committeeman from Hudson
County, demanding to be able to inspect state correctional facilities under the false pretense that I represent the entire citizenry rather than the Republicans of Hudson County.
The Hoboken Democratic Committee executive board who signed the letter, Phil Cohen, Nora DeBenedetto, and Rachel Hodes, are following in the footsteps of their political leader, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla.
Bhalla has dedicated a significant portion of his energies to virtue signaling symbolic politics and has an axe to grind against County Executive DeGise whom he allied against with Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and State Senator/Union City Mayor Brian Stack.
Cohen, who was a loyalist of former Hoboken Mayor Zimmer, was the beneficiary of the coup organized by Bhalla to dethrone Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher from the chair of the Hoboken Democratic committee (and is now its chair).
DeBenedetto is a second ward resident the Bhalla team is rumored to be building up to take on Fisher in the November 19 ward council elections.
Hodes is the wife of Bhalla’s deputy chief of staff and also a rumored candidate for the same ward elections (in ward 6, home of Giattino, another Bhalla political opponent).
The Bhalla administration is clearly attempting to beef up the political resume of its future
ward candidates in an effort to take out its biggest critics.
Were this attempt composed of actual substantive content there would be little to critique.
But pretending the regional relationship between the county and ICE has changed, that numerous Hudson county elected officials (all Democrats) haven’t reviewed and approved this relationship repeatedly since 1996, demanding a county tax increase, and pretending they deserve special treatment, shows how immature and out of touch with reality they are.
Joshua Einstein
Republican State Committeeman